Briser
Brisons là! = Let us have no more of that; That will do.
Briser
Brisons là! = Let us have no more of that; That will do.
Brochette
Broder
Je crois que vous brodez = (fig.) I think you are exaggerating, romancing.
Il brode bien = He is good at drawing the long bow.
Brouillard
Établir une rente sur les brouillards de la Seine = To have an income in the clouds (i.e. nothing).
Brouiller
Est-ce que vous vous êtes brouillés? = Are you no longer friends?
Il a eu le malheur de se brouiller avec la justice = He was unfortunate enough to fall out with justice (i.e. to be punished by imprisonment, fine, etc.).
Brouter
*Où la chèvre est attachée il faut qu’elle broute = One must bow to circumstances; One must put up with the inconveniences of one’s position if one can get nothing better; One must not expect more from life than life can give; We must take things as we find them.
[“Là où la chèvre est liée il faut bien qu’elle y broute.”—Molière, Le Médecin malgré lui, iii. 3.]
L’herbe sera bien courte s’il ne trouve à brouter = He would live on nothing; It will go hard if he does not pick up a living.
Faire plus de bruit que de besogne = To be more fussy than industrious.
*Grand bruit, petite besogne = The more hurry, the less speed; Great cry, little wool.
*Qui a bruit de se lever matin peut dormir jusqu’au soir = A good reputation covers many sins.
Les tonneaux vides sont ceux qui font le plus de bruit = The worst wheel makes the most noise.
Brûler
Il s’est brûlé la cervelle = He blew his brains out.
Ils tirèrent sur lui à brûle-pourpoint = They fired at him point-blank (so as to burn his doublet).
Il m’a posé cette question à brûle-pourpoint = He asked me that question quite unexpectedly.
Brûler une station (une étape) = To run through a station (or, a halting-place) without stopping.
Brûler le pavé = To dash along at full speed, to “scorch.”
Brûler à petit feu = To wait impatiently, to be on thorns.
Cherchez bien, vous brûlez = Search well, you are getting warm.
[Said to children who are looking for a hidden object, and are getting near it.]
Nous avons brûlé nos vaisseaux = There is no going back now; We mean to fight to the last.
[Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, on landing in Africa 317 B.C., burnt his vessels in order to force his soldiers to conquer or to die. William of Normandy (1066) and Cortez (1518) did the same.]
Un acteur qui brûle les planches = An actor who plays with spirit, “go.”
Brûler la politesse = To behave rudely by leaving a person abruptly.
Buisson
*Il n’y a si petit buisson qui ne porte ombre = There is no man, however humble, who cannot aid (or, injure) his superior.
Trouver buisson creux = To find the birds flown.
Buse
*On ne saurait faire d’une buse un épervier = One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
[“Que l’en ne puet fere espervier
En nule guise d’ung busart.”
Guillaume de Lorris, Roman de la Rose, 3839.
Also: D’un goujat on ne peut pas faire un gentilhomme = It takes three generations to make a gentleman; and D’un sac à charbon il ne saurait sortir blanche farine.]
But
De but en blanc = Point-blank; Abruptly.
Ça
Ça a sa petite volonté (fam.) = It has a will of its own (in speaking of children, etc.).
C’est toujours ça = That is something, at any rate.
Pas plus que ça?; Rien que ça? = Is that all?
[This is generally used ironically: e.g. Le cocher m’a demandé vingt francs pour aller de la Place de la Concorde à Longchamp!—Rien que ça?]
Cabinet
Cet avocat a un bon cabinet = That barrister has a good practice.
Cachet
Courir le cachet = To go from house to house giving private lessons.
[This expression comes from the custom of the master giving to the pupil a number of tickets (called cachets) at the first lesson, for which the pupil pays, and gives one back at the end of each lesson.]
Cadet
C’est le cadet de mes soucis = That is the least of my cares; That is the last thing I worry about.
Cadran
Il a fait le tour du cadran = 1. He has slept the clock round. 2. He has worked for twelve hours at a stretch.
Cage
*La belle cage ne nourrit pas l’oiseau = Fine clothes do not fill the stomach.
Caisse
Il tient la caisse = (lit.) He keeps the cash account; (fig.) He holds the purse-strings.
Il fait la caisse = He is making up his cash account.
Quel est l’état de votre caisse? = How much cash have you in hand?
Cale
Campagne
En rase (or, pleine) campagne = In the open country.
Battre la campagne. (See Battre.)
Se mettre en campagne = (lit., of a general) To take the field; (fig.) To canvass or look out for a post; To start working.
Camus
Rendre un homme camus = To stop a man’s mouth; To make a man look small.
Il demeura tout camus = He had not a word to say for himself; He was “stumped.”
Canard
Cette nouvelle n’est qu’un canard = That story is all humbug.
[Canard is an absurd tale mocking the credulity of listeners. Littré derives the word from the phrase vendre à quelqu’un un canard à moitié = to half sell a duck to any one, i.e. not to sell it at all, and so, to cheat. A moitié was suppressed and un canard came to mean a cheat, a sell. Many other explanations are given of this word.]
Cane
Faire la cane = To run away; To show the white feather.
[This expression literally means to bob down, like a duck, to escape being shot. The verb caner (= to funk) is more often used now, or the less familiar caponner. “To show the white feather” arises from the fact that white feathers in game-cocks show impurity of breed.]
Capable
Il prend un air capable = He puts on a bumptious look.
C’est un homme capable de tout = He is a man that would stick at nothing.
Rire sous cape (or, sous sa coiffe) = To laugh in one’s sleeve (generally of women. See Barbe.)
N’avoir que la cape et l’épée = To be titled but penniless (generally used of young officers who have nothing but their pay).
Roman de cape et d’épée = A romantic, melodramatic tale (e.g. Dumas, Les Trois Mousquetaires).
Caque
*La caque sent toujours le hareng = What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh.
[“You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.”
Moore, Farewell.]
Caractère
Il a le caractère bien fait = He is always good-tempered.
Il a le caractère mal fait = He cannot take a joke.
Carat
C’est un sot à vingt-quatre carats = He is an out-and-out fool, an A 1 fool.
[“Enfin quoique ignorante à vingt et trois carats.”
La Fontaine, Fables, vii, 15.]
*Cela arrive comme mars en carême = That comes regularly, like clockwork.
*Cela arrive comme marée en carême = That comes very seasonably, just at the right time.
Une face de carême = A sad, pale, woe-begone face (like that of one who has fasted all Lent).
Prêcher sept ans pour un carême = To do a great deal for little good.
Carpe
Muet comme une carpe = As dumb as an oyster.
Baîller comme une carpe = To yawn one’s head off.
Elle fait la carpe pâmée (fam.) = She turns up the whites of her eyes; She pretends to be ill; She looks like a dying duck in a thunderstorm.
[Also: Faire des yeux de merlan frit.]
Carré
Une partie carrée = A party composed of two ladies and two gentlemen.
C’est une tête carrée = He is an obstinate fellow.
Carreau
C’est un valet de carreau = He is a contemptible fellow, a snob.
Coucher sur le carreau = To sleep on the floor.
Il l’a laissé sur le carreau = He killed him (or, left him for dead on the ground).
Il est resté sur le carreau = He was killed on the spot, left for dead on the ground.
[Formerly the floors of rooms were paved with square tiles or bricks called carreaux. Kitchens are still so paved in France, and often ground-floor rooms in the country.]
Carte
Battre les cartes = To shuffle the cards.
Donner les cartes = To deal the cards.
Brouiller les caries = (fig.) To sow discord.
Elle lui a tiré les cartes = She told his fortune (by cards).
Il a vu le dessous des cartes = He has been behind the scenes; he is in the secret, “in the know.”
Jouer cartes sur table = To play openly; To act frankly.
Donner carte blanche = To give full permission; To grant a person full liberty to act according to his judgment.
Je connais la carte du pays = I know the country well.
C’est un homme qui ne perd pas la carte = He is a man who keeps his wits about him, who has an eye to the main chance.
C’est un château de cartes que cette maison = This is a jerry-built house.
Carton
Rester dans les cartons = To be pigeon-holed.
Des objets de carton = (fig.) Gimcrack things.
Cas
C’est bien le cas de le dire = One may indeed say so.
Il n’est pas dans le cas de vous nuire = He is not in a position to harm you.
Le cas échéant = In such a case; If such should be the case.
C’est le cas ou jamais = It is now or never.
Nous en faisons grand cas = We value it very highly.
Tout mauvais cas est niable = A man may be expected to deny a deed that he knows to be wrong.
Un en-cas = Something prepared in case of need.
[Formerly this was said of a slight meal placed in a bedroom in case one should wake in the night and need food. Now it rather refers to anything that can be used in case guests arrive unexpectedly. Also of a parasol that can be used as an umbrella in case it rains. The latter is more usually called un en-tout-cas.]
Une noce à tout casser (pop.) = A rare old jollification.
Vous me cassez la tête avec votre bruit = You split my head with your noise.
Je ne me casse pas la tête avec (or, pour) de telles bagatelles = I don’t worry my head (or, rack my brains) over such trifles.
Il nous cassait l’encensoir sur le nez = He was smothering us with flatteries.
[To ‘incense’ any one would be to honour or praise him, but to break the censer against his nose would be overdoing it.]
Les fatigues ont cassé cet homme = Hardships have broken that man down.
J’ai cassé une croûte = I just had a snack.
Cet homme casse les vitres = That man speaks out boldly, to bring matters to a crisis; That man does not pick and choose his words.
On ne fait pas d’omelettes sans casser des œufs = Nothing is done without trouble and sacrifice.
[A saying attributed to Napoleon I. in defence of the great mortality caused by his wars.]
Payer les pots cassés = To stand the racket.
Se casser le nez = 1. To fall on one’s face. 2. To knock up against an obstacle. 3. To fail in an enterprise.
Cataplasme
C’est comme un cataplasme sur une jambe de bois = A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse.
Catholique
Cet individu n’a pas l’air catholique = That man does not look very trustworthy.
Votre vin est trop catholique = Your wine is too weak, (i.e. baptised with water).
Cause
Il parle en connaissance de cause = He knows what he is talking about.
Je ne veux pas y aller et pour cause = I do not want to go there, and for a very good reason.
J’ai toujours pris fait et cause pour vous = I have always stood up for you, taken up the cudgels in your defence.
Il a eu gain de cause = He gained the day.
Un avocat sans cause = A briefless barrister.
Vous êtes hors de cause = You are not concerned in the matter; This has nothing to do with you.
Il est sujet à caution = He is not to be relied upon.
[Caution, meaning “bail,” implies that he cannot be trusted except on bail.]
A ce que je vois = As far as I can judge.
Ce que je sais, c’est que c’est un voleur = All I know is that he is a thief.
Sur ce il s’en alla = After that he went away.
Ce que c’est que de nous! = What poor mortals we are!
*Bonne renommée vaut mieux que ceinture dorée = A good name is better than riches; He who has lost his reputation is a dead man among the living.
[Ceinture here refers to the purse which was in, or attached to,
the girdle. Compare Proverbs xxii. 1, “A good name is rather to be
chosen than great riches,” and
“The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.”
Shakespeare, Richard II. i. 1.]
Cela
C’est parler cela = That is what I call talking.
C’est ceci, c’est cela = It is sometimes one thing, sometimes another.
Pour ça, non! = Not a bit of it; Certainly not.
Il est comme cela = That is his way.
C’est bien comme cela! = That is just it!!
C’est cela même! = That’s the very thing!
Pour cela même = For that very reason.
N’est-ce que cela? = Is that all?
Cent
En un mot comme en cent = Once and for all.
Je vous le donne en cent = I bet you 100 to 1 you will not guess it.
*Cent ans bannière, cent ans civière = Up to-day, down to-morrow; Every dog has his day.
[Bannière is here used as the mark of nobility. Also: Aujourd’hui chevalier, demain vacher. German: Heute mir, morgen dir. Latin: Hodie mihi, cras tibi.]
Cent ans de chagrin ne paient pas un sou de dettes = Worrying will not pay your debts.
Cervelle
Le scélérat se brûla la cervelle = The scoundrel blew his brains out.
[Also, more pop., “se faire sauter le caisson.”]
Chacun
Chair
Chaise
Être assis entre deux chaises = To fall between two stools. (See Chasser.)
Chambre
Il y a bien des chambres à louer dans sa tête = He is an empty-headed fellow.
Chameau
Rejeter le moucheron et avaler le chameau = To strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
Champ
Il est fou à courir les champs = He is as mad as a March hare.
Nous prendrons la clef des champs = We shall take the key of the street (i.e., run away).
Un rien le met aux champs = A trifle throws him into a passion, bewilders him.
Être aux champs = To be put out, bewildered, angry.
Prendre du champ = To take a run (before leap); To have room before one (for an effort).
[“Ils prirent du champ et coururent l’un sur l’autre avec furie.”—Chateaubriand, Dernier des Abencérages, 185.]
Chance
Chance vaut mieux que bien jouer = Luck is better than wit or brains.
Il n’est chance qui ne retourne = The luck must change.
Chandelle
*A chaque saint sa chandelle = Honour to whom honour is due; Every lawyer must have his fee.
Il vous doit une belle chandelle = He ought to be very grateful to you.
[An allusion to the custom of burning candles before the altars of Saints, as a mark of gratitude, considered due to them.]
Voir des chandelles (or, mille chandelles) = “To see stars.” (See Étoile.)
Donner une chandelle à Dieu et une au diable = To try and keep in with both parties.
Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle = The game is not worth the candle; It is not worth while.
[i.e., when the stakes are not sufficient to pay for the candle burnt during the game.]
*C’est une économie de bouts de chandelle = That is penny-wise and pound-foolish; That is spoiling the ship for a ha’porth (halfpennyworth) of tar; That is a cheese-paring policy.
Brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts = To burn the candle at both ends.
Change
Donner le change = To put off the scent, to mislead.
Vous ne me ferez pas prendre le change = You will not impose upon me, put me on the wrong scent.
[Expressions taken from hunting, where the dogs leave the track of the game they have raised, to run on another scent.]
Je lui ai rendu le change = I paid him back in his own coin. (See Monnaie.)
Changer
Changer son cheval borgne contre un aveugle = To lose in an exchange.
Chanson
Il en a l’air et la chanson = He looks it every inch; He has both the appearance and the actuality.
C’est l’air qui fait la chanson = Words depend much on the tone in which they are spoken; It is not so much what you say as the way in which you say it.
Chanter
*Il chante toujours la même chanson = He is always harping on the same string.
[“Cantilenam eandem canere.”
Terence, Phormio, iii. 2, 10.
“Chorda qui semper oberrat eadem.”
Horace, Ars Poet., 356.]
*Tel chante qui ne rit pas = The heart may be sad though the face be gay.
C’est comme si je chantais = It is like talking to the air, preaching in the desert.
Je lui ai chanté sa gamme = I lectured him severely.
Une porte mal graissée chante = One must pay well to keep persons quiet.
Elle chante à faire pitié = She sings most wretchedly.
Chanter juste = To sing in tune.
Si ça vous chante (fam.) = If you are in the mood for it.
Chapeau
Voici la reine, chapeau bas! = Here is the Queen, hats off.
Chapelet
Le chapelet commence à se défiler = The association is beginning to break up.
Défiler (or, dire) son chapelet = To say all one has to say.
Il n’a pas gagné cela en disant son chapelet = He did not get that for nothing.
Chapon
*Qui chapon mange, chapon lui vient = He that has plenty shall have more.
Charbonnier
*Charbonnier est maître chez lui (or, chez soi) = Every one is master in his own house; An Englishman’s house is his castle.
[In the Commentaires de Blaise de Monluc, Maréchal de France
(ed. Alphonse de Ruble, pour la Société de l’Histoire de France,
tome iii. p. 482, Paris, 1867), in a remonstrance to the king
he says: “car chacun est roy en sa maison, comme respondit le
charbonnier à votre ayeul.” M. de Ruble appends this note:
“François Ier, à la suite d’une chasse qui l’avait séparé de sa
suite, se perdit dans une forêt et chercha un asile dans la cabane
d’un charbonnier. L’homme était absent; le roi ne trouva que la
charbonnière, s’empara du meilleur siège et demanda à souper.
La femme voulut attendre l’arrivée de son mari. A son retour,
celui-ci reprit brusquement son siège et offrit un simple escabeau
au roi: ‘Je prendz cette chaise,’ dit-il, ‘parce qu’elle est à moi:
Or, par droit et par raison,
Chacun est maître en sa maison.’
Le roi, charmé de n’être point reconnu, obéit à son hôte. On soupa d’un quartier de chevreuil tué en cachette, on médit du roi, des tailles qu’il venait d’ordonner et surtout de sa sévérité pour la chasse. Le lendemain, François se fit connaître. Le charbonnier se crut perdu, mais le roi le rassura, et, pour prix de son hospitalité, lui accorda de grandes faveurs, entre autres le droit de chasser. A son retour à la cour, il rapporta le récit de son aventure et surtout le proverbe qu’il venait d’apprendre.” Also in La Belle Arsène, comédie-féerie de C. S. Favart, acted before the king in 1773, we find this proverb (Act iv. Sc. 2).]
Charge
Cela est à ma charge = I have to pay for it; That falls on me.
Cela m’est à charge = That is a burden to me.
C’est entendu, à la charge d’autant (or, de revanche) = I will do the same for you; One good turn deserves another.
Charité
*Charité bien ordonnée commence par soi-même = Charity begins at home.
[“Proximus sum egomet mihi.” = I myself am nearest to myself.—Terence.]
La charité, s’il vous plaît! = Please give me a penny!
Charlemagne
Faire Charlemagne = To leave off a winner, without giving one’s adversaries a chance of revenge.
[Génin explains this as a shortened form of faire comme Charlemagne, who died without losing any of the conquests he had made.]
Charrette
Mettre la charrette (or, charrue) devant les bœufs = To put the cart before the horse.
[Lucian says: ἡ ἅμαξα τὸν βοῦν ἕλκει = The waggon drags the ox.]
Mieux vaut être cheval que charrette = Better lead than be led.
Faire un chassé-croisé = To go to and fro in all directions; to exchange places; to play at “puss in the corner.”
“Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop” = What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh.
[Destouches, Le Glorieux, iii. 5. Comp.
Horace, Ep. I., x. 24: “naturam expellas furca, tamen
usque recurret,” and La Fontaine, Fables, ii. 18:
“Tant le naturel a de force!
Il se moque de tout...
Qu’on lui ferme la porte au nez
Il reviendra par les fenêtres.”
Frederick the Great wrote to Voltaire (19th March 1771): “Chassez les préjugés par la porte, ils reviendront par la fenêtre.”
Also: Qui naquit chat court après les souris.]
*Qui deux choses chasse, ni l’une ni l’autre ne prend = Between two stools one falls to the ground.
Ne chassez pas deux lièvres à la fois = Do not have too many irons in the fire.
Il chasse de race = He is a chip of the old block.
Un clou chasse l’autre = One idea drives away another.
*A bon chat bon rat = A Roland for an Oliver; Tit for tat; Diamond cut diamond.
*Chat échaudé craint l’eau froide = A burnt child dreads the fire; Once bit, twice shy.
[The Jewish Rabbis said: “One bitten by a serpent is afraid of a rope’s end.”
Hesiod says: “Even a fool after suffering gets him knowledge”; the Italians: “Can scotato da l’acqua calda ha paura poi della fredda” = A dog burnt by hot water afterwards fears cold.]
J’appelle un chat un chat = I call a spade a spade. (See Appeler.)
Avoir un chat dans la gorge = To have phlegm (or, frog) in the throat; To be hoarse.
*Nous avons d’autres chats (or, chiens) à fouetter = We have other fish to fry.
Il n’y a pas là de quoi fouetter un chat = It is not worth getting angry about.
*Ne réveillons pas le chat qui dort = Let sleeping dogs lie.
*Le chat parti les souris dansent = When the cat’s away the mice will play.
*La nuit tous les chats sont gris = At night one may easily be mistaken; At night beauty is of no account; When candles are away, all cats are grey.
*Chat botté n’attrape pas de souris = A muffled cat catches no mice.
Comme chat sur braise = Like a cat on hot bricks.
Il n’y a pas un chat = There is not a soul.
Aller comme un chat maigre = To run like a lamplighter. (See Verrier.)
Château
Faire des châteaux en Espagne = To build castles in the air.
[This expression is found from the thirteenth century. The explanation that would ascribe it to the followers of the Duc d’Anjou when he became Philippe V. of Spain must therefore be incorrect. The phrases “Châteaux en Asie, en Albanie” were also used, so that it comes to mean “to build castles in foreign countries, where one is not,” and hence “to indulge in illusions.”—Littré, s.v.
“Chatiaus en Espagne.”—Guillaume de Lorris, Roman de la Rose, l. 2530.
“De quoi sert-il de bastir des chasteaux en Espagne puisqu’il faut habiter en France?” St. François de Sales, lettre 856.]
Chaud
Pleurer à chaudes larmes = To cry bitterly.
*Tomber de fièvre en chaud mal = To fall out of the frying-pan into the fire.
Cela ne me fait ni froid ni chaud = That is indifferent to me.
Il a les pieds bien chauds = He is in very easy circumstances.
Chaudron
*Petit chaudron, grandes oreilles = Little pitchers have long ears.
Chauffer
C’est un bain qui chauffe = There is a shower coming on.
[When it feels close, or when the sun is seen for a few minutes through the clouds, it is looked upon as a sign of rain.]
Ce n’est pas pour vous que le four chauffe = All these preparations are not for you.
Chausser
Les cordonniers sont les plus mal chaussés = The shoemaker’s wife goes the worst shod.
Chauve
Chauve comme mon genou (fam.) = As bald as a coot, as a billiard ball.
Chef
Elle a une grande fortune de son chef = She has a large fortune in her own right.
Faire une chose de son chef = To do a thing on one’s own responsibility.
Chemin
Chemin faisant = On the way.
Le chemin de velours = The primrose path.
En tout pays il y a une lieue de mauvais chemin = (fig.) In every enterprise difficulties have to be encountered.
Il ne faut pas y aller par quatre chemins = You must not beat about the bush; You must go straight to the point; You must not mince matters; It’s no good shilly-shallying.
*Qui trop se hâte reste en chemin = The more haste, the less speed; Slow and sure wins the race. (See Hâte.)
*Le chemin le plus long est souvent le plus court = The longest way round often proves to be the shortest; A short cut may be a very long way home.
Prendre le chemin de l’école (or, des écoliers) = To take the longest way (a roundabout way).
*À chemin battu il ne croît pas d’herbe = (fig.) There is no profit in an affair in which many are engaged.
Se frayer un chemin avec les coudes = To elbow one’s way through a crowd.
Cheminée
Il faut faire une croix à la cheminée = “We must chalk it up” (of an event that seldom happens.)
Sous le manteau de la cheminée = Secretly, sub rosa.
Cheval
*À cheval donné on ne regarde pas à la bride (or, à la dent) = One does not look a gift-horse in the mouth.
[Late Latin: “Si quis det mannos, ne quaere in dentibus annos.”]
On loge à pied et à cheval = Good entertainment (accommodation) for man and beast.
L’œil du maître engraisse le cheval = Matters prosper under the master’s eye.
[“Il n’est pour voir que l’œil du maître.”
La Fontaine, Fables, iv. 21.]
Il est aisé d’aller à pied quand on tient son cheval par la bride = It is easy to stoop from state when that state can be resumed at will.
Il n’est si bon cheval qui ne bronche = The best horse may stumble; Accidents will happen.
[Also: Il n’est si bon charretier qui ne verse.]
Il a changé son cheval borgne contre un aveugle = He has changed for the worse; He has made a bad bargain.
Monter sur ses grands chevaux = To ride the high horse.
[A reference to the big war horses used by knights in battle.]
Je lui ai écrit une lettre à cheval = I wrote him a severe letter.
Il est toujours à cheval sur l’étiquette = He is a stickler for etiquette.
Il est bon cheval de trompette = He is not easily dismayed.
Un cheval à deux fins = A horse for riding or driving.
J’ai une fièvre de cheval = I am in a high fever.